On Tuesday, in a 67-32 vote the USA Freedom Act was approved by the Senate.
President Obama signed it into law Tuesday evening according to the White House.According to The Hill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was on the losing side of the battle with this bill because he opposed it even after the House passed it with a broad, bipartisan vote.
All three of McConnell’s amendments to the bill died on Tuesday. That did not help him either.
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Senator Rand Paul (KY-R) also blasted McConnell. He blocked several efforts by him to pass a short-term extension of the Patriot Act and he has made opposing NSA spying an important part of his presidential campaign. His efforts in the last few weeks has also irritated a lot of his Senate colleagues.
The USA Freedom Act, will end the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata that was exposed by government leaker Edward Snowden.
One of the authors of the bill, Senator Patrick Leahy (VT-D) said after the vote:It’s an historic moment. It’s the first major overhaul in government surveillance laws in decades and adds significant privacy protections for the American people.
The bill will also bring back to life three parts of the Patriot Act that expired on Sunday. These components are said to be very important for the government to protect the nation.
It will also give the NSA approximately six months to stop collecting phone metadata. That includes phone numbers involved in call, the time the call happened and the duration of the call. The NSA program did not include collecting the content of phone conversations.